J. Herbert Nelson to speak in support of health care for millions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 3, 2015                                                          For more information, contact:

Rev. Cynthia Abrams,

Director of Health and Wholeness

General Board of Church & Society

w: (202) 488-5636 c: (703) 586-7005

cabrams@umc-gbcs.org

                         

King v. Burwell:

Interfaith Press Conference and Prayer Vigil
at the U.S. Supreme Court

Faith leaders pray for health care access for all people  

An interfaith press conference and prayer vigil with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith leaders will be held on the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, March 4 at 10:15 a.m. These leaders will speak to the moral imperative to ensure access to health care for all people and the importance of health care from a faith perspective.

U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in King v. Burwell on March 4.This case potentially impacts millions of men, women, children, and families who have access to affordable and quality health care through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

WHO:

Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, Director for Public Witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Rabbi Lori Koffman, National Council of Jewish Women

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary for the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society

Dr. Sayyid Syeed, Islamic Society of North America 

Sandy Sorenson, Director of the United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

Sr. Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK

WHERE: 

In front of the U.S. Supreme Court

WHAT: 

Faith Leaders Press Conference and Prayer Vigil for health care. Faith leaders will address the importance of subsidies and ensuring that everyone has access to health care. Speakers will be available for interviews. 

WHEN: 

March 4 from 10:15 – 10:30 a.m. 

For more information, contact Michelle C. Whittaker at (202) 488-5632 or (202) 701-8420.

The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness is the public policy information and advocacy office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Its task is to advocate, and help the church to advocate, the social witness perspectives and policies of the Presbyterian General Assembly.

The National Council of Jewish Women is a volunteer organization that has been at the forefront of social change for over a century — championing the needs of women, children, and families — while courageously taking a progressive stance on such issues as child welfare, women’s rights, and reproductive freedom.

The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Prime responsibility of the board is to seek implementation of the Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns of the General Conference, the denomination's highest policy-making body.

The Islamic Society of North America fosters the development of the Muslim community, interfaith

relations, civic engagement, and better understanding of Islam.

The Justice and Witness Ministries is the justice and advocacy arm of the United Church of Christ. The Washington office responds to God's commandments to do justice and seek peace through public policy advocacy and witness.

NETWORK, a Catholic leader in the global movement for justice and peace, educates, lobbies, and organizes for economic and social transformation. NETWORK is a progressive voice within the Catholic community that has been influencing Congress in favor of peace and justice for more than 40 years. 

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Letter to the House of Representatives on Threats to Asylum Seeker Protections from PC(USA) Stated Clerk Rev. Gradye Parsons

Both of these troubling pieces of legislation are being marked-up Wednesday, March 4 in the Judiciary committee : The Protection of Children Act introduced by Representative John Carter (R-TX-31) and The Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act introduced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT 3) and Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA 6). Members of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition have written letters opposing these damaging pieces of legislation. 

In short, the Protection of Children Act would roll back important protections under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act for unaccompanied minors who seek refuge at our border. The Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act would restrict access to asylum and humanitarian parole for several vulnerable groups, such as unaccompanied minors, as well as augment the use of immigrant detention. 

This is the letter sent on behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

----------------------

March 2, 2015

Dear Members of the House of Representatives,

I write to you today on behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to express concern about the Protection of Children Act and the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act.

Just as Christ welcomed the children[1], so strives the church. Presbyterian congregations across the United States gathered together to support the needs of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America in the summer of 2014. Their stories and their faces are forever etched on our hearts and in our minds. The notion that our government could have kept any one of these children in detention longer or required them to participate in a hearing so ordered as to guarantee their return to danger, as these proposed bills would allow, is contrary to our belief in the special place children hold in our faith communities.

The authors and signors of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) recognized the value and vulnerability of children when they added the provisions protecting unaccompanied minors in 2008. That section of the TVPRA was passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by a Republican president.[2] The process under the TVPRA was created out of a concern that a child traveling alone from another country could be fleeing genocide, family violence, and/or have become the victim of human trafficking. The protections of the TVPRA have been used to save the lives of thousands of children from countries all over the world since its passage. The tragic arrival of tens of thousands of children last year does not make the need to protect children and ensure that their humanitarian claims are heard any less important. We do not alter our values and obligations to children and the world because it has become inconvenient.

Proponents of diminishing the protections to unaccompanied children in the TVPRA blame the TVPRA for the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied children at our southern border last year. This logic is flawed and altering the TVPRA will not keep children from making dangerous journeys to the U.S. The majority of child arrivals last year were from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. They were fleeing country conditions, not arriving to take advantage of permissive laws. Proof of that lies in the fact that countries neighboring Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador saw a similar increase (712 percent) in the amount of children applying for asylum as well.[3]

The TVPRA’s guarantee of a speedy placement with Health and Human Services and in the least restrictive setting considering the best interest of the child is not a “loophole.” Children who arrive alone from noncontiguous countries have traveled a great distance and are likely to have been traumatized and exploited on their journey. Taking them out of the hands of an immigration enforcement agency and placing them in the care of a social service agency is common sense. This guarantee allows children the time and space to tell their story and have access to counsel. These are not lavish or meaningless guarantees. They are basic due process guarantees that take into consideration the nature and vulnerability of a child far away from home and placed in immigration removal proceedings.

The Protection of Children Act and the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act would take away these basic due process protections by requiring that children remain in the custody of Homeland Security for thirty days and be subjected to a removal hearing with an immigration judge within fourteen days. These acts further eviscerate due process by eliminating the review process that takes into account a child’s ability to make an independent decision about her or his case and forbids the use of government funds for attorneys for unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. Children, far away from home and likely subjected to trauma, will be forced to tell their story to immigration enforcement officers and participate in hearings without counsel a mere fourteen days after arrival in the United States. The passage of either of these bills guarantees that children with real claims for protection by this country will instead be returned to the violence and exploitation they journeyed so far to escape.

United States immigration law does not require adults who appear at our border with humanitarian claims to prepare a hearing within fourteen days. We do not have a mandate to hold them in custody while they await their hearing. Why, then, would we require children, who have been traumatized, who may not understand English or be able to read in any language, to be held to a more onerous process? Children deserve special consideration and protection—not less consideration and protection. The authors and signors of the TVPRA in 2008 understood this. A vote for lessening the protections of the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act would be a vote for refoulement of the most vulnerable group of persons seeking protection that our country encounters—unaccompanied children.

We ask that you oppose the Protection of Children Act and the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act and any other bill that is proposed that would lessen the protections of the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act.

In Christ,

The Reverend Gradye Parsons

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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[1] Matthew 19:13–14

[2] http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/president-bush-signs-william-wilberforce-trafficking-victims-protection

[3] Children on the Run, UNHCR, http://unhcrwashington.org/children

PCUSA Witness in South Sudan

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leader meets with United States Embassy Officials in South Sudan

The Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, recently met with United States Embassy officials in South Sudan. Nelson spent nearly two weeks in the country investigating ways that the Office of Public Witness can better partner with World Mission to more effectively engage partner churches and organizations, mission co-workers, and other personnel, in justice advocacy.

Before leaving Juba, South Sudan, Nelson appealed for the U.S. Embassy’s intervention in returning South Sudan pastors who had been arrested in Sudan, back to their families, congregations, and communities. A Presbyterian News Service article dated January 21, 2015, reported that Reverend Yat Michael, a South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SSPEC) pastor was arrested after preaching on December 21, at Khartoum North, a congregation of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church.

Subsequently, the Reverend Peter Yen, a SSPEC pastor who was also visiting Khartoum, hand-delivered a letter from the SSPEC General Secretary. The letter called for the release of Reverend Michael. On Sunday, January 11, Yen was asked to report to security and he too was detained without warrant or charge. No further information is known at this time about Reverend Yen. Click here to See full PNS article.

“I went to South Sudan on a missionary experience and ended on a mission of mercy,” said Nelson. “It is important that we prevent the intimidation and possible loss of life among Church leaders and others who are expressing the gospel’s call for love in a militarized and war-torn part of the world.”

The U.S. Embassy in South Sudan was not aware of arrest and promised to investigate the matter with the U.S. Embassy in Sudan. According to Human Rights Watch, since December 2013, up to 10,000 people have died, one million people have been displaced, and 400,000 have fled to neighboring countries. According to those Nelson spoke with on the ground, some estimate the death toll to be as high as 40,000 persons since the beginning of the most recent outbreak of violence. 

As of press time for this article, there had been no news about the whereabouts or wellbeing of Reverends Michael and Yen. Click here for a more recent report from World Watch Monitor.

The PC(USA) Office of Public Witness is now in the fifth year of a plan to revitalize and strengthen the work of advocacy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Of the trip to South Sudan, the Reverend Nelson said:

“We are intentionally focused on reaching out to entities of the denomination that are working with marginalized people -- those who most often face injustice in the world. World Mission is one entity within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that has historical connections with church partners and global reach to persons and communities. Given the political significance of South Sudan to global politics and the longstanding mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Africa, it was important for me to witness first-hand the recent devastation that the people of South Sudan and mission co-workers are encountering.

“It is imperative that we make a connection in the denomination regarding mission and justice. We tend to view mission as an essential element of our historic role as Presbyterians, but oftentimes we fail to see the connections between our mission work and efforts to challenge systemic injustice in our country and our world. We must seek to uphold the human rights of all persons in the United States and around the globe.

“Jesus affirmed both mission and justice in his ministry. He taught that they are both essential to the promotion of the Kingdom of God. The bible reminds us of both prophecy and mission. These two elements are not mutually exclusive in living out the fullness of the gospel’s intent.

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The Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II, is the Director for Public Witness at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC.

This article is published as part of the Presbyterian Mission Agency's (PC(USA)) Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry newsletter.